Our history
We called ourselves wavemakers. And almost 60 years on, we’re still making waves.
We started in 1964 when the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences established the Danish Institute of Applied Hydraulics. An independent, not-for-profit institution, we later became known as DHI. Over the years, we’ve grown from a handful of passionate wave modellers in Denmark to a 1000-strong organisation developing solutions in more than 140 countries, wherever you find water.
In 1969, we developed a pioneering method to produce irregular waves in hydraulic model testing using a direct reproduction of measured time series from nature. The prevalent approach was to use regular waves, which weren't a true representation of how natural waves behave. This resulted in our first irregular wave generator – a major step forward in hydraulic modelling.
And so it’s true: Innovation is in our DNA. And it will continue to be as we look towards the future.